Supreme Court Tomorrow At 9am: Partial Preview

My sense is that those who have been following the Redistricting Board and the Superior Court challenges won't have trouble following the arguments tomorrow.  For others, giving quick overviews here isn't easy.  I have tried to do that with some of the cases in earlier posts.  

Key information:  9am at the Alaska Supreme Court  Friday March 18, 2022 9am. Much easier (since they are limiting the gallery to 50 people) is to watch it live at www.ktoo.org/gaveland .

You can also check out the filings in the Docket here.

You particularly want to look at the Responses (Numbers 33-40).  These are the arguments of the different parties.  

33 - State of Alaska - The State isn't arguing for against the maps or the judge's decisions about the maps. The State  has two concerns here:

1.  That the precedent set by the Court regarding the importance of listening to what the public has to say ("if you didn't intend to listen to what the public said, why hold all the hearings?).  The State is making an argument that that only applies to the Redistricting Boards and not other state boards.

2.  Also, the Court's decisions about attorney-client privilege and the Open Meetings Act should also only apply to the Redistricting Board and not other State Boards.

34 - Matsu-Susitna Borough - challenged (along with Valdez) District 29 which put Valdez in with Palmer and Wasilla suburbs.  Matsu-Susistna makes its points easy to read.

• The Court "requires remand to the Board to comply with the Constitution'
• Agreement with the Court's finding of violations of the Open Meeting Act
• Court was correct in its determinations regarding discovery

35 - Alaska Redistricting Board - Defending its decisions and challenging the conclusions of Judge Mathews they disagree with and supporting those they agree with

36.  City of Valdez - See comments below.

37.  Municipality of Skagway - Agreeing with the judge on public input and disagreeing with the judge that Skagway is Socio-Economically Integrated with the Mendenhall Valley.

38.  Felisa Wilson - This is the Anchorage case that challenged the pairing of the two Eagle River House seats with Muldoon in one Senate seat and JBER and downtown Anchorage in another Senate seat.  The judge ruled in their favor and the Board is challenging that.  This is a harder case to follow because it focuses on violations of principles of law such as due process, arguing that the Board went from transparent and then when it came time for Senate pairings it went opaque.  It argues that the East Anchorage plaintiffs couldn't make their case stronger because the Board withheld information until the very last minute - some of that including racial data about the voters in the Muldoon district.  As an observer of the Board and then the trial, it clearly appeared to me that the Board's strategy at the trial was to stall and delay.  See this January 19 post:   AK Redistricting Pre-Trial Hearing - Board Strategy Is Clear And Working.  

39.  Doyon Limited - Doyon led a coalition of Native Corporations in monitoring the Redistricting Board throughout the process, including creating their own proposed redistricting map.  The were pretty successful in getting all the Doyon and Ahtna villages into one district - 36.  They are here to defend District 36, particularly against Valdez' claims that the Board put Native Corporation goals ahead of the Constitutional requirements for creating the districts.  

Second reminder:  These were very quick grabs from the documents.  You can look at them yourselves for more details.  I'm sure all the attorneys would be rolling their eyes at my very brief takes.  

You can skim through these at the link.  But here's a little more depth into the Valdez case.  

Valdez - The basic argument seems to be that by committing strongly to the Doyon plan to get all the Doyon villages into one district (the new 36), the Board a) used a non constitutional criterion (getting all of Doyon together) and b) caused Valdez to be in a district that it is not socio-economically integrated with.  

Basically they say that the focus on creating a "Doyon District" resulted in a district that is not compact, not SEI (socio-economically integrated).  And the impact on Valdez was to put it into a district that had serious problems.  Thus, by using nonconktititonal criteria (getting all the Doyon villages together into D-36), the Board ended up with an unconstitutional Valdez district (29).

There's more detail, but that's the biggest argument.  And it's pretty clear that there was a lot of pressure to do that.  Doyon had a group of Native Corporations and money to create their own alternative map.  And Doyon attorney Tanner Amdur-Clark was allowed to act as an Intervenor attorney during the trial.  That is not to say that there is anything wrong with wanting to get all the Doyon (and Ahtna) villages into one district.  But that is not one of the constitutional requirements for putting the districts together.  Attorney Brena is trying to convince the Supreme Court that by locking in District 36, the Board created 

• an unnecessarily large (not Compact) district
• a district that was not Socio-Economically Integrated (even though it has all those Native villages, the population is 70% non-Native) and
• Put Valdez into a district which in which it has serious conflicts and thus whose interests in the legislature would be overwhelmed by Mat-Su portion of the district

[Note:  I scanned the brief fairly quickly, but I read the conclusions more carefully.  I'm just trying to give readers what stood out to me as the main thrust of the argument.  You can read it for yourself in the link below.]

From the VALDEZ-DETTER’S CORRECTED PETITION FOR REVIEW March 3, 2022, here's the conclusion of their argument::

"VII. CONCLUSION

The Board chose to prioritize the nonconstitutional goals of its individual members

over the consistent application of the constitutional requirements throughout the

redistricting process. Time-and-again the Board deferred to the priorities of the individual member from the geographic area under discussion. This is simply not the constitutional process the Board is required to undertake, and, as a result, the process failed to produce constitutionally compliant outcomes.

The Board set aside its constitutional obligations to establish compact and socio-economically integrated districts when it prioritized the nonconstitutional goal ofcreating a “Doyon” or “Doyon-Ahtna” district (District 36). The Board’s favored treatment of the Native voters in these villages, which constitute less than 30 percent of District 36, over all other voters cannot possibly survive constitutional scrutiny.

The Doyon district is not compact. It would be the third-largest state in our union. It is not so large because Alaska is a vast state with low population densities, as may sometimes justify a larger district, but because the Board set aside the constitutional requirements for establishing house districts and instead decided to (1) establish VRA [Voting Rights Act] districts early in the process in direct violation of the Hickel process, locking in portions of the Doyon district’s boundaries; (2) inconsistently and arbitrarily apply ANSCA boundaries to artificially separate Native villages along the lower Yukon drainage, while ignoring other ANSCA boundaries altogether; (3) form a noncompact horseshoe shape around the population of Fairbanks in an effort to keep Fairbanks intact in deference to Chair Binkley; and (4) establish and advance a goal of maximizing the voting power of far-flung Native villages (that are currently in four different districts) by combing them into a single district, even though the district was over 70 percent non-Native. The Board then further violated compactness by adding two strange appendages to capture 30 Ahtna shareholders in Cantwell and to capture the predominately non-Native population of Glennallen, breaking two borough boundaries in the process.

The Doyon district is also not relatively socio-economically integrated. There is no substantive or creditable evidence in the record suggesting the communities along the lower Yukon and those along the Richardson Highway are relatively socio-economically integrated at all, much less to the maximum degree practicable.

Since statehood, every governor and board has properly applied the constitutional standards of article VI, section 6 to place Valdez in a house district with the Richardson Highway communities, with the Prince William Sound communities, or with both. The Board in this case has orphaned the voters of Valdez from their closest neighbors and placed them completely in a district with voters with whom they do not work, live, or share common concerns. The Board took this action as a default in order to achieve thenonconstitutional goals it had already committed to achieve.

The Board’s actions ignored the public process, which overwhelmingly suggested Valdez should not be districted, let alone exclusively paired, with the Mat-Su Borough. The public process yielded voluminous and near unanimous comments in favor of Valdezbeing placed with the people its voters live, work, and share common interests with along the Richardson Highway, as it has been for decades, in what has been framed by the courts as “the most strongly integrated economic corridor in the state, the pipeline corridor, the Richardson Highway corridor from the south region of the North Star Borough to Valdez.”274

Rather than ensuring District 29 met the constitutional requirements for a house district, the Board chose to protect its nonconstitutional priorities and reach out to everyone it could for justification supporting pairing Valdez exclusively with the Mat-Su Borough for the first time in history. In doing so, the Board stretched this Court’s prior authority beyond recognition and advanced theories that diminish if not entirely abrogate the limitations to the Board’s discretion set forth in article VI, section 6 of the Alaska Constitution.

The Board did not map, much less look hard at establishing (1) a Richardson Highway house district; (2) a Valdez, Seward, and Kodiak house district by shifting 274 In re 2011 Redistricting Cases, 2013 WL 6074059 at *13 (emphasis added).

Cordova into Southeast; or (3) an Anchorage and Valdez house district. The Board chose not to even look at the maps already prepared by Member Marcum because they would require modification to the VRA districts and Doyon district in order to form a Richardson

Highway or Prince William Sound district. In addition, the Board discouraged Member Marcum from mapping an Anchorage and Valdez district altogether. Any of these alternatives would have resulted in more compact and socio-economically integrated house districts throughout Alaska, which the Board could have considered if they had properly and consistently applied the constitutional requirements. This Court should enforce these requirements and remand this matter back to the Board for consistent application when evaluating the viable alternatives it chose not to consider for the voters of Valdez.

Some of the parties that have filed briefs (Calista and the State of Alaska) have done to support or oppose concepts raised in this case.  Calista is arguing against Valdez' argument that ANCSA boundaries are not appropriate to use for redistricting.  ????   And the State of Alaska is arguing that the broader than normal interpretation of the importance of listening to the public ruling by Judge Matthews should not be extended to other public bodies.  (Check if there are other issues)

Calista is not challenging the judge's decision about the Calista region and the State is not advocating one way or the other about the maps, or even the Judge's standard for listening to public testimony for redistricting.  

Derelict Blogger Catching Up On Redistricting Case

 Back in February, March 18 seemed a long way off, but today I realized it was only two days away.  It's not like I hadn't checked the Supreme Court website.  I had.  But there were several different listings under the Redistricting Case.  I checked one or two and the only documents I could find were from February 17, 2022, about five.  

Well, I should have tried them all - they've been consolidated into S-18332.  There I found 51 documents - the latest was put up yesterday March 15, 2022.  

I've got things downloaded.  A lot are short administrative documents - asking for more time or permission to go over the page limits and then responses from the Court.  Others are the much longer arguments of the various parties.  Those I'll look through tomorrow.  

Meanwhile, here are some excerpts from the Court's orders that apply to the actual hearing on Friday that might be of interest to readers.  

• All petitions and responses will be assigned SupremeCourt Case No. S-18332.
• Oral argument will be held on Friday, March 18, 2022 at 9:00AM. Argument is expected to take place in-person in Anchorage, although capacity for in-person attendance may be limited in order to allow social distancing. The argument will be live streamed on www.ktoo.org/gaveland remote viewing is encouraged. The time allowed for each side to argue will be announced in a separate notice following the submission of the parties’ written arguments. 
•  The Court will strictly adhere to the time limits set forth above.
• Oral argument will be held before the Supreme Court on 3/18/2022 beginning at 9:00 AM as follows
• 9:00AM – 10:00AM: Alaska Redistricting Board’s petition for review regarding Senate District K. 30 minutes per side: Redistricting Board and East AnchoragePlaintiffs
• 10:15AM – 11:15AM: Alaska Redistricting Board’s petition for review regarding House District 3 and Municipality of Skagway’s petition for review regarding HouseDistricts 3 & 4. 30 minutes per side: Redistricting Board and Municipality of Skagway. .
• 11:30AM – 12:50PM: Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s & City of Valdez’s petitionsfor review regarding House Districts 29, 30, and 36. 40 minutes total for the Borough& City (20 min each, absent different agreement); 40 minutes total for RedistrictingBoard, Doyon Intervenors, and Calista Parties to divide by agreement. 

So, East Anchorage (Muldoon-Eagle River pairing) goes first.

Then Skagway.

Then Mat-Su and Valdez

I still have to decide if I want to try to get into the courtroom or watch online.  In a lot of ways, online has been much easier for many things.  And if I can't get in because there are too many people, I'd have to hustle home to listen on line and I wouldn't want to miss anything.  

Chile's President Gabriel BoricTakes Office - Part Of A New Generation Of World Leaders

Zelensky's been the world's superhero lately, but I want to point out that there are other young new heads of state with a strong progressive agenda.  

Gabriel Boric became Chile's president on Friday.  Here's some video and below an English translation of his inaugural address.

Here's an Al Jazeera video that gives some background on the new president.

The video below shows him addressing the nation from the presidential palace in Santiago.

Here's a link to the speech in Spanish.  And below is a Google translation. [Google translate has improved enormously over the years, but still has some quirks.  It starts out in Spanish "S.E. el presidente ..." which Google translated as "I know the president . . ."  OK, 'se' means I know, but that makes no sense.  My consultant said it means "Su excelencia"  or "His excellency."  I'll let you make your own adjustments along the way.]

I KNOW. the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric Font, makes his first presidential message and greets the citizens present in the Plaza de la Constitución.

Chilean men and women, inhabitants of our country, people of Chile:

This afternoon, for the first time, I speak to you as President of the Republic, President of all of us who inhabit this country that we love so much and how much we love Chile, which has suffered so much and has given us so much joy.

Infinite thanks for giving me this honor to you, to those who are seeing us in their homes throughout our country. Also, to my unconditional family, to our Cabinet, our teams and, also, personally to Irina.

This Chile made of diverse peoples and nations, installed on a cornice of the continent between the imposing mountain ranges and its magical ocean, between the desert of life and the Antarctic ice, enriched and transformed by the work of its people.

It is this Chile that in just a handful of years, and you have lived through it, has had to go through earthquakes, catastrophes, crises, convulsions and a global pandemic and human rights violations that will never be repeated in our country. But in which we always, always dust ourselves off, dry our tears, rehearse a smile together, roll up our sleeves and continue, Chilean men and women, we always continue.

The emotion that I have felt today when crossing the Plaza de la Constitución and entering this Palacio de La Moneda is deep and I need, existentially, I need to share it with you. You are a leading part of this process, the people of Chile are leading in this process, we would not be here without your mobilizations.

And I want you to know that we did not come here just to fill positions and entertain each other, to generate unattainable distances, we came here to give ourselves body and soul to the commitment to make life better in our country.

I want to tell you, compatriots, that I have seen your faces touring our country, those of the elderly whose pension is not enough to live on because some decided to make pensions a business.

Those of those who get sick and their families do not have how to pay for the treatments. How many of you have spoken to us, we have looked into each other's eyes.

Those of the indebted students, those of the peasants without water due to drought and looting.

Those of the women who care for their children with ASD that I find in every place in Chile. To their bedridden relatives, to their defenseless babies.

Those of the families who are still looking for their disappeared detainees, which we will not stop looking for.

Those of the dissidences and gender diversities that have been discriminated against and excluded for so long.

Those of the artists who cannot live from their work because culture is not valued enough in our country.

Those of the social leaders who fight for the right to decent housing in the populations of Chile.

Those of the native peoples stripped of their land, but never, never of their history.

Those of the harassed middle class, those of the children of Sename, never again, never again, the faces of the most isolated areas of our country like Magallanes where I come from, those of those who live in forgotten poverty.

With you is our commitment.

Today we begin a period of great challenges, of immense responsibility, but we are not starting from scratch, we are not starting from scratch. Chile has a long history and today this day inserts us into that long history of our Republic.

Starting my mandate as Constitutional President of the Republic of Chile is to become part of a history that exceeds us all, but at the same time gives it shape, gives meaning and direction to our gaze.

Thousands of people passed through here before us who made possible the expansion of public education, the progressive recognition of the rights of women and dissidence in the country and at home, the democratization of the country, the recognition of social rights .

Here, in this place from where I speak to you today, Balmaceda and his Chilean dignity passed, Pedro Aguirre Cerda and his "to govern is to educate" quoting Valentín Letelier.

Eduardo Frei Montalva and the popular promotion, comrade Salvador Allende and the nationalization of Copper, Patricio Aylwin and the recovery of democracy, Michelle Bachelet opening unexplored paths with social protection also passed through here.

Here you can also hear the echoes of those who have anonymously risen up against oppression, defending human rights, demanding truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.

The feminist cry and its fight for equality resonates here.

And some will also remember the 1,800 hours running around La Moneda for education.

But these walls have also witnessed the horror of a past of violence and oppression that we have not forgotten and will not forget.*

This Palace, this Square, this city, this country have history and we also owe ourselves to that history. Today, on this important day in the difficult, difficult path of changes that the citizenry decided to start in unity, I repeat, important, in unity, the days come to my mind and my heart when, together with many of the Here present, and surely those who are seeing us in their homes too, we marched together for a worthy future.

Where were we going, compatriots? where were we going?

This Government is not going to be the end of that march, we are going to keep going and the road, without a doubt, is going to be long and difficult, but today the dreams of millions of people are here pushing us, giving us meaning to bring the changes that society demands.

Chileans and Chileans:

My dream is that when we finish our mandate, and I speak in the plural because this is not something individual, this is not about me, this is about the mandate that the people gave us to this collective project, when we finish this mandate we can look at our children, our sisters, our parents, our neighbors, our grandparents and we feel that there is a country that protects us, that welcomes us, that cares for us, that guarantees rights and fairly rewards the contribution and sacrifice that each one of you, of the inhabitants of our country, do for the development of our society.

I would like, compatriots and in the examples one always falls short, but I would like, compatriots, that the people of Puchuncaví and Coronel can look to the future and know that their children are not going to grow up surrounded by contamination, something so basic.

That the people, the workers of Lota are not going to continue living in poverty.

That the communities of algueras and artisanal fishermen of the province of Cardenal Caro will be able to continue developing their traditional activities.

Let the boys and girls of Alto Hospicio, up there, know that they too will be able to access decent housing.

May the neighbors of Antofagasta, Maipú, Hualpén feel calm when they return from their jobs and have time to live with their families. That is why we will promote, as we have promised, the 40 hours.

That the young people of Juan Fernández, that isolated, insular place, will be able to have a decent school to study.

We know, compatriots, that meeting our goals will not be easy, that we will face external and internal crises, that we will make mistakes and that we must correct those mistakes with humility, always listening to those who think differently and relying on the people of Chile.

I want to tell you that we are going to live in challenging and tremendously complex times. The pandemic continues its course, with a balance of pain and loss of life that will accompany us for a long time, surely all of you know someone who has left as a result of the pandemic.

Let's think, let's think for a second, for a second about who has gone and who has left us, let's think about the pain that each family has in their intimacy because of who has left and who will not return. We have to embrace each other as a society, love each other again, smile again, this beyond speeches and beyond what is written, how important, how different it is when in a town we love each other, we take care of each other, we do not distrust each other of the other, but we support each other. We ask our neighbor how he is, we support the worker next door, we love each other, we get ahead together. That is what we have to build, compatriots.

We also know that the economy continues to suffer and that the country needs to stand up, grow and fairly distribute the fruits of this growth, because when there is no distribution of wealth, when wealth is concentrated only in a few, the pay is very difficult. We need to redistribute the wealth produced by Chilean men and women, produced by those who inhabit our country.

We know that to all these difficulties is added, in addition, an international context marked by violence in many parts of the world and today also by war. And in this I want to be very clear, Chile, our country, will always promote respect for Human Rights, everywhere and regardless of the color of the government that violates them.

From Chile, in our Latin America, because we are deeply Latin American and enough of looking at our neighboring countries from a distance, we are deeply Latin American and greetings to our brother peoples, from here, from this continent we will make efforts so that the voice of the south becomes to listen firmly in a changing world.

There are so many challenges, the climate emergency, migration processes, economic globalization, the energy crisis, permanent violence against women and dissidence. We have to work together with our sister nations, as we discussed today with Presidents of other countries. Never again look at us in less, never

Dear inhabitants of our land:

I assume today with humility, aware of the difficulties the mandate that you have entrusted to me, I also do so with the conviction that only in the collective construction of a more dignified society can we found a better life for all. In Chile there is no one left, we build democracy together and the life we dream of can only be born from coexistence, dialogue, democracy, collaboration and not exclusion.

I know that in 4 more years the people of Chile will judge us by our works and not by our words and that, as an old poet used to say, when the adjective does not give life, it kills. Today it was necessary to talk, tomorrow all together to work.

As Salvador Allende predicted almost 50 years ago, we are again, compatriots, opening the great avenues through which free men, free men and women pass, to build a better society.

We continue. Long live Chile!

*Here's a link to a post I did in July 2019 from Santiago which includes a picture of the palace he spoke from with two women picketing outside.  This is the building that the Air Force bombed in Pinochet's coup and where Allende committed suicide rather than be captured and tortured and possibly betray others.  I'd note that Allende's wife attended Boric's inaugural.  

 Below is another analysis of this significant change in Chilean politics.   

Gabriel Boric gets to work remaking Chile

Oil, Ukraine, Flopping, And A Cameo Part For Sen.Dan Sullivan

 When you get a chance, tie up one of your oil fanatic Republican family members and/or friends and make them watch this.  It covers most of the relevant issues.  Trust me.  It's worth watching.

Thanks, George.

Snow Plow Day

While we were Outside, I read people's complaints about the roads, the lack of plowing, etc.  We only got back Monday night, so we haven't lived with it.  But there was a huge pile of snow in front of our house - if I'd have tried to park in front of the house in my normal spot, I would have been blocking the road.  

But today the snow plows showed up around 9am and worked our neighborhood til about 5pm.  Back and forth, widening the street, then clearing the snow.  Then widening more.  Scraping the ice until the pavement was showing.  I don't recall there ever being such a day where our neighborhood got this much attention.  

Here's he's making lots of noise as he's scraping down through the ice to the pavement below.

To the left there is still ice on the street.  To the right he's gone down to the asphalt

 

At this point they have cleared the berms on the sides of the streets several times.  Now they've gotten the snow that had been piled up on the sides of the street, including the huge pile in front of our place.  It's in a big berm in the middle of the street - maybe 5 or 6 feet high.

Here's a bit of video as this piece of equipment pulls up the snow berm and spits it into the waiting dump truck.

As I said, we missed much of the terrible road conditions.  I don't recall the snow removal teams spending this much time - the whole day - in our neighborhood and getting rid of so much snow and ice in a single day.  My thanks to the team that cleared the streets so well.  

Bainbridge Island Supports People Of Ukraine

Sunday I joined my daughter and about 100 other folks from the island in a short procession and quiet rally for the people of Ukraine.  It was organized by the Interfaith Council.  Some pictures. 

We're about to board a plane back to Anchorage.  Looking forward to a second spring, but it could be a while.  

Bike Ride To Rocky Beach

 Biked over to Manitou Beach today.  

Downtown Seattle in the distance

Here's that picture again, cropped.  All of a sudden, all the gulls in the area took flight.  

Click on image to enlarge

TJ Leaves; Rich Russian Penis Vocabulary; AIFF 2022 Calls For Film Submissions; Housing Shortage Though People Leaving; Helping Ukraine

There are so many things to talk about.  This post is just going to give you a glimpse of a few and you can check out the links yourself.  

Redistricting Board Changes

TJ Presley resigned as Deputy director of the Alaska Redistricting Board to become Bill Walker's campaign manager.  According to Executive Director Peter Torkelson, TJ gave several weeks notice and his resignation was effective February 16, 2022.  I'd note that TJ and Peter worked closely together and were responsible for the website and the Board's efforts to insure as much public input as possible to the Board.  Unfortunately, they were not responsible for whether the Board listened to the public's input, and as Judge Matthews noted in his decision, they clearly did not in the Eagle River pairings nor in the Skagway house districts.  

"Not To Be Penis-Like"... Explaining the Brilliance and Insanity of the Russian Language

This blog post by Russian-American Slava Malamud, begins with a comparison of English airport customs signs and the equivalent signs in Russian.

"When you arrive at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow (did you notice how Russian passengers applauded the pilot for landing the plane without killing anyone?) and survive the passport control by the openly hostile female junior lieutenant of the Border and Customs Service, you are immediately greeted by two signs. One of them says the following:

“TOVAROV, PODLEZHASHCHIKH OBYAZATEL’NOMU TAMOZHENNOMU DEKLARIROVANIYU, NYET.”

Can you say all of this ten times fast? Or, really, fuck it, just say it one time slow.

Luckily, there is the second sign. It is the accurate, literal English translation of the above. It says:

'NOTHING TO DECLARE.'”

While Malamud tells us that English is far more efficient than Russian, he also says:

 But, as already hinted above, one area in which English can never compare to us is in relaying emotions and nuances of feelings. This is a task that Russian, with its myriad of suffixes, its glut of diminutives, its gender sensitivity and its poetic verbosity is uniquely suited to, leaving the directness and punctuality of English at a loss.

Wanna see how this works?

So, let’s consider the phrase “Yob tvoyu mat, kak zhe khuyovo-to, blya!”, uttered by pretty much every Russian male upon waking up hung over. It’s seven words, plus an emphasis word “to” (pronounced “toh”), which carry almost zero relevant information, while expressing rich layers of emotion that English is not equipped to relay. 

This phrase contains three profanities, all of them of carnal nature (the only type of profanities that exist in Russian).

The link will take you into a world you never knew existed.  (Unless you're a native Russian speaker or close to it.)  

Anchorage International Film Festival

If you know film makers, encourage them to send their best work to our festival.

The day is FINALLY here! Calling all filmmakers and screenplay writers: you can now send your film/screenplay to Anchorage International Film Festival to be considered for the 2022 program! We can not wait to watch and read all the new, exciting works , and equally share the joy here displayed by one of the wonderful filmmakers attending the festival last year (and having a blast, it looks like), Pat McGee

Spread the word to any and all filmmakers you know, all the scr…

See more

Housing Shortage Along With Loss of Population

I'm sure there's a good explanation for this and if it weren't after 5pm on Friday, I'd make some phone calls to see if I could find it.  Today we had this story in the ADN:

Average home price tops $420K amid ‘scary’ low inventory

Bill Popp quoted:

"Just over 3,600 single-family homes sold last year, an increase from 2020, when sales topped 3,200 and were the highest in at least 12 years.

A key factor is the limited number of houses on the market, realtors say, as residential construction has slowed in recent years.

The industry built fewer homes than expected last year. Popp said residential construction fell 7% compared to 2020, amid rising costs and shortages of material and labor during the pandemic."

But in late January Mr. Popp was lamenting declining population in Anchorage.  

Anchorage’s declining population creates strains on local economy

 "Anchorage lost a total of 1,550 residents from April 2020 to July 2021, eliminating part of the adult working-age population in the city. Anchorage has been decreasing in population, Popp said, since 2016.

I can think of a number of explanations, but it would be nice if the reporter of this most recent story had asked Popup to explain the apparent contradiction.  If we have 1500 fewer people, why don't we have more available housing?  Is this about people wanting to move out of apartments into new houses?  Is it about investors buying up houses and using them as rental units or B&Bs, while they wait for their investments to gain in value?  There's a lot more to this story than just having Mr. Popp's limited explanation.  

Helping Ukraine

And if you feel helpless as you watch the destruction of Ukraine, there are ways to help.  It's always hazardous to send money to online 'charities' especially when there is an emergency and scammers pop up all over waiting to take advantage of your generosity.  But for left leaning folks, you might give these Obama Foundation Leader* recommendations a look.  But try to double check nevertheless. 

How You Can Help the People of Ukraine - From the Obama Foundation - a list of organizations that their fellows in the field recommend for donations.  With links.  Just do it.  If $10 is all you can give, remember 1000 people giving that is $10,000.  

*What's an Obama Foundation leader?

The Leaders program launched in Africa in 2018, expanded to Asia Pacific in 2019, and inaugurated a virtual program in Europe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Obama Foundation Leaders hail from a wide variety of nations and territories, work across public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and address a full range of social impact issues.

The Leaders program offers practical skill building for social change, leadership coaching, discussion of critical issues, and small group support.

Obama Leaders also participate in various virtual experiences and special events, including one-on-one conversations with experienced mentors in the Foundation’s global network.